[e-drug] No Agreement on medicines at the WTO

["Ellen T HOEN" <Ellen.T.HOEN@paris.msf.org>]

E-drug: No Agreement on medicines at the WTO
---------------------------------------------

Latest news: contrary to some press reports there is no agreement on the
Chairs' statement at the WTO in Geneva!

As of this morning  1.30,  there is no agreement. The TRIPS council could
not agree on the text and sent it to the General Council. The chair of the
General council met with delegations - a number of them raised concerns and
had said they would only be willing to adopt the text based on their own
interpretation which would be counter the purpose of the Chairs Statement
which says: "represents several key shared understandings of Members
regarding the Decision to be taken and the way in which it will be
interpreted and implemented".

The chair then asked for more time for consultations and suspended the
meeting to reconvene when he feels there is enough consensus.

Some people close to the negotiations indicate that this means there will
not be an agreement before the WTO ministerial in Cancun.

Lets hope the WTO will use this delay to work on a better solution.

Ellen
MSF Access Campaign, Paris

Here is a link to a Reuters article:

Reuters.com - WTO Drugs Deal Stalls Over Last Minute Squabble

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3354824&fromEmail=true
[Long URL will need repair]

"Ellen T HOEN" <Ellen.T.HOEN@paris.msf.org>

Access Essential Drugs Monitor #32 at http://www.who.int/medicines/mon/mon32.shtml

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